Set in the rural mountains around Lake Arenal, Silencio is anything but quiet these days. Our days here in the community have been action-packed as we advance on several projects and get to know a place that few people outside of Costa Rica ever get to experience.

Good phone and internet connectivity is scarce in Silencio, so we thought we’d give you a sense of what a typical day of community service looks like, from morning to night:

7:30am- Rise and shine! Brush your teeth, comb your hair, and shower before breakfast!

8:00am – Team breakfast! Breakfast is prepared by our local cooks with the helping hands of the Putney students on kitchen crew duty! We get treated to homemade gallo pinto (a breakfast rice and beans plate), eggs, toast, juice, and coffee among other breakfast goodies. This is when we pack in our energy for a day full of action on the work site!

9:00am-12:00pm – The breakfast table is cleared and we start our work on several different projects for the community. Our students split up into 2-3 groups with local handymen to improve the school grounds and community buildings. This year, we have started replacing a sidewalk outside of the school, cleaning and painting other walking areas around town, mixing and pouring concrete to build an access ramp in a park, painting a sidewalk around the school building, and tiling the counters in the school kitchen. In all of these projects, our students are working hand in hand with members of the community.

12:00-1:00pm – Lunch time! The rotating Putney student kitchen crew works together with local cooks to prepare delicious helpings of food like pork chops, spaghetti, rice and beans, fish, and other local dishes to satisfy our hunger after a morning on the work site.

1:00-4:00pm – After letting the tasty meal digest, we head back out to the work sites. These projects last for days and sometimes weeks and we are making incremental process each day until we produce a finished product— appreciated by the entire Silencio community almost every year since 2002!

4:00-6:00pm – This is down time and chance to hang out with our local friends. We typically rest and relax, play games, and join the local kids for a game of soccer on Silencio’s beautiful field. Our students also started an initiative to teach English lessons to local children and get to know more of the Silencio community.

6:00-7:00pm – Dinner time! By now, we have worked up quite an appetite from the day of building, painting, and fun.

7:30-8:30pm – Our nightly meeting as a team. Every night the group meets to reflect on our day and plan the next one to come. This is a chance to check in together and reinforce the Putney spirit that make these programs so great.

8:30-9:30pm – Hanging out, getting ready for bed, guitar playing and chatting. Together we start to wind down and prepare for a good night’s sleep.

9:30 – Lights out! Getting plenty of rest is an important part of a healthy program. By this time of the night, most of us are ready for some shut eye.